The 28th Amendment: Big money out of US politics!

To Presidential Debate Moderator Jim Lehrer:

As American citizens concerned that the record amounts that will be spent on this campaign pose a threat to good government, we call on you to spend one of the six 15-minute segments in the first presidential debate pressing the candidates on what they plan to do to address this issue. In particular, we call on you to ask them: “If elected, would you call on Congress to study and propose a Constitutional Amendment designed to reduce the influence of money in our political system - yes or no - and, if not, what would you do to address voter concerns that campaign money is corrupting our political system?"

Posted: 25 September 2012 The flood of corporate and special interest money pouring into our elections is corrupting American democracy to the breaking point, but we have a powerful opportunity to begin to take our democracy back if we act in the next 48 hours.

Since the Supreme Court’s radical 2010 Citizens United ruling gutted most legal limits on what billionaires and corporations can spend on influencing our elections, so-called “SuperPACs” have raised more than $300 million from a tiny group of super wealthy donors. With this money, Big Oil can block efforts to fight climate change, Wall Street can block fair taxation and defense lobbyists can rev up the war machine -- even when the public is opposed. The threat to good government is existential -- yet the candidates are barely talking about it. We can change that by making sure big money in politics and the need for a Constitutional Amendment to fix the problem is a central topic in the first presidential debate.

PBS’s Jim Lehrer will moderate the debate -- and his staff told Avaaz that if we petition for him to ask a question on this issue, they'll present it to him this Friday, along with how many people signed. So let's build a massive call -- sign the petition and share with everyone you know!